Your site looks good, in fact, modern compared to the competition. And you’re thinking, “didn’t we just update it recently?” Time has a way of slipping past more swiftly than we realize. Three or four years flies by and in seemingly a short time, the website you so carefully designed has started to slowly fall apart. Part of that is because technological advances don’t wait for us to catch up. Understanding why this happens and the benefits of a refresh can help keep your website healthy and attracting new business.
Potential Problems
The first step towards a remedy is diagnosing whether your site is experiencing any problems. Just a few of the issues that can develop without proper maintenance include:
- Pages load slowly or not at all
- Image galleries don’t show up
- Navigation menus float instead of remaining fixed
- Links also float instead of remaining in navigation bar
- Hover effect is broken
- Security is at risk
- Mobile responsiveness cuts out
- Lead collecting forms stop working properly
What’s causing these issues?
Behind the Scenes
Imagine for a moment a shiny new car in your driveway, it looks perfect and runs like a dream. But what would happen if you drove your car on a daily basis and never performed any maintenance—no oil changes, no tune-ups, no new belts, to name a few. It might look good on the outside but the engine will sputter or fail. Think of your website in a similar fashion. The front end or finished website is the outside shiny part of what customers or clients see when they visit. Behind the scenes, in the engine room, multiple tools and plug-ins have to coordinate to keep the front end working. Coding language, security features, plug-ins and themes continually evolve and change. Ignoring these elements for years causes a snowball effect that will eventually show as glitches or unresponsive features on the front end of your website.
CMS – Constantly Evolving
The most dominant content management system (CMS) in the market is WordPress. In 2020, WordPress powers 35% of all websites on the internet, the leader compared to any other platform. These content management systems are under continuous attack by hackers. Thousands of lines of code lie behind even the simplest website and malware or viruses work away at sites trying to infiltrate and populate it with spam or bad links. Security improvements is what drives a large majority of CMS updates so the back end is constantly changing and evolving to meet these challenges.
The Flip Side
Now we know what can go wrong when a site isn’t maintained or refreshed. What’s the flip side? What are the positive benefits of maintaining your website or looking at a redesign? Any good developer will make sure your site is using the latest version of WordPress and that the code or script behind the scenes is the latest version. Your site should be safe from potential security threats, maintain top loading speeds, and function properly across any size device. The benefits are many:
- Keep your web design current with the latest trends for the most modern image, look and performance
- Optimize the user experience to help convert visitors into leads by:
- Making flow of information and content easy to follow
- Placement of navigation bar
- Easily switch between tablet, phone, desktop or laptop
- Colors selection that communicates your brand identity
- Latest pop-ups
- Relevant and impactful Call-to-Action that improves opt in rates
- Selection and utilization of the most relevant plug-ins
Proximity Marketing understands that your website needs to be more than just a pretty design, but also a powerful tool that communicates to prospects and customers and moves them further along the sales cycle. We can help you regain control over your site and suggest and supply options to make it more relevant to your audience. Give us a call today to help tune up your marketing engine.
